Manes and Mayhem

It had been some time since that fateful meeting, with the group of superheroines forming the now famous Power Ponies team, and the Mane-iac they fought quickly becoming their arch-rival. They had dealt with the villain several times, and thwarted her mane-brained schemes to… do whatever she was trying to do—the heroes did have their guesses, but with how the story seemed to change every time they met, they could never be certain.

It was becoming somewhat rote at this point; notice suspicious behaviour and/or crimes relating to shampoo, investigate the problems back to their source, and finally fight through the waves of henchponies and defeat whatever mad and brilliant creation that the Mane-iac had cooked up that day. Each of the Power Ponies had their own opinion on the matter, and while Zapp and Fili-Second were simply content with the fighting and taunting the supervillain, the other heroes were different.

Saddle Rager always preferred peace, and simply wanted the villain to behave herself so that Maretropolis could be more peaceful, though she wasn’t particularly engaged with fighting the mare herself—unless her alter ego came out to play, that was. Little Humdrum was really just afraid of all the chaos around the villain, wanting her to stop in one way or another so that things could return to normal, and Mistress Marevelous had expressed her annoyance at the Pony that caused so much trouble, and wanted to lock her away...

But none of them compared to the rage beheld by Masked Matter-Horn. The Unicorn was a perfectionist and had some... unaddressed issues, but even knowing that didn’t prepare her teammates for how much of a seething rage she fell into when dealing with the supervillain. The crazy way Mane-iac sought to prank the team all across Maretropolis, for no reason other that just seeming to find it funny, was in direct opposition to the incredibly obsessive Matter-Horn, and she was horrible at withstanding the taunting the villainess often threw her way. She was easily driven to fight recklessly, and that was often the thing keeping her from actually stopping the villain herself, but she was still very keen on locking that mare away in Balkham Asylum for as long as physically possible.

But as for where Radiance stood in all of this? Well, she enjoying the encounters just like Zapp and Fili, but her enjoyment was deeper than the simple pleasures of sparring with some well-dressed stallions. Instead, Radiance found herself so very attracted to the Mane-iac herself...

Radiance was a mare of equal parts order and spontaneity, with her many schedules and plans, but easily falling into a craze about whatever the jewelry and fashion industry was into at the time. The Mane-iac was clearly much the same, as for all her insanities and the many ways they manifested, all of the technology she built, the chemicals she synthesized, and the operations she oversaw, they beheld a serious intellect and level of planning that no level of madness could account for. They were like two sides of a coin, with parts of them directly opposed, yet sharing quite a lot.

But perhaps the greatest thing they shared was a mutual interest of theirs; manestyling. Radiance obviously put meticulous care into maintaining her immaculate mane and tail, careful to keep in clean while doing her heroics. Meanwhile, the Mane-iac often threw things around and smashed through walls with the tendrils of her mane, but she too made sure to keep her hairs cleaned after everything was said and done, which had first been discovered during a talk with the mare herself.

And now, Radiance was seeing the process for herself.

“Did I ever tell you how much I love your mane?”

“Only every single time we meet, Radiance.”

“Yes, well...” The heroine mumbled, her voice only heard by the one other Pony in the room with her; the dreaded Mane-iac herself, who was just... brushing her mane. “It’s a lovely mane.”

The smile on the Mane-iac’s face widened a bit further at the comment, and she looked the other mare in the face, speaking in a more subdued tone than her usual mane-iacal one, but still sounding slightly scratchy and out of it, “You have to be the only mare in this whole city who cares about manes as much as I.”

“That’s a high bar...” Radiance said in return, watching each stroke of the villain’s brush going through the lengthy strands of her mane. It was mesmerizing in a sense, and she had often found her endless brushing of her own mane to fade into the background of her morning routine while she busied herself with other aspects of it. Even with all that time spent taming, styling, and beautifying her mane... “Though I suppose nopony else could compare to all the machines you make related to them, and schemes you perform about them.”

“Good, I would hate to be outclassed on my specialty,” The Mane-iac spoke back, sneering somewhat with a layer of anger on her face. “So many ponies wish they could have a mane like mine, but... they’d never treat it right. It’d just be... a h-hassle to them...” Her voice broke for a second, her eyes gaze turning distant, but just for a moment before she refocused and growled out, “A dumb tool they could never take care of, and never use properly. Just for petty stuff, not anything important, not anything it deserves.”

The other mare stood silent for a moment, her eyes still watching the continuous loop of brushing through those endless green hairs, but her mind was a bit taken by the villain’s words. “Is that why you do this, dear...?” She mumbled thoughtfully, but loudly enough for the villain herself to hear, “Is this all just because ponies don’t care for their manes?”

A loud bark of a laugh escaped the Mane-iac, “HA! You really think it’s so simple, little filly!?” She shouted with her mad grin splitting open her face, her crazed eyes boring into the other Pony, “You think you can understand me?!” A slow, chilling laugh bubbled its way out of her throat, and she moved forward towards Radiance, her much taller form bearing down over her, fear seeping into the smaller mare’s wide eyes. “I am.. the Mane-iac... I am madness and evil... I wreak havoc across this city for reasons beyond your punitive mind’s comprehension. They are everything and nothing at the same time, all the fools that fill this place must be taught and punished... and they will tremble before my power as I take control of this entire city! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!”

Radiance stood beneath the mare, and tried to keep herself calm; for all the peaceful talking she had with the Pony, said Pony was still a supervillain, and had been able to take out the entire group of all six Power Ponies with barely an effort multiple times. She was dangerous, but... Radiance still knew that she wasn’t pure evil, and had a heart underneath it all. And, well... with how much taller the mare was, standing over the hero with her mane going wild, blocking out what little moonlight seeped into the building they stood within, her entire being seeming as a force of nature, untamable and beyond understanding... Radiance’s heart was beating faster for more reasons that just fear.

...clack!

The sharp sound of something striking the floor suddenly snapped both mares’ attention away from the Mane-iac’s mane-iacal laughter, and down to the manebrush that had slipped out of the villain’s tendril that held it. They both stood silent for a time, the moment utterly broken by the intrusion, but Radiance’s mind was quickly filled with the idea of grabbing the brush and using it on the other Pony’s mane... Doing it with her own mane could be rather soothing, after all, so what about another Pony’s, much longer and more magical mane?

Radiance’s legs started moving before her brain could even catch up, taking her a couple paces over to right beside the Mane-iac, and she picked the brush up off the floor. Looking up and over at the villainess, who was looking back down at her with an unreadable expression, the smaller mare raised the brush towards the Mane-iac’s namesake and timidly asked of her, “Ah... May I..?”

After another moment of that unreadable stare, the villain then squinted in suspicion at the hero, but did soon enough nod in consent. Giving a small smile in return, Radiance rose the brush further and pressed it into the other mare’s mane, its many bristles sinking between the innumerable green strands, and when the Unicorn pulled the brush downward, those bristles pulled through the strands, straightening them out and removing and detritus that had been left stuck inside. And, when the brush got stuck every now and then, she pulled a bit harder to break the small knots that had formed in the villain’s wild mane.

Radiance slowly sat down while she continued to work through the mane, continuously stroking through the lengthy tendrils on loop, and evidently, the actions were soothing to the owner of that mane as well, who let out a soft sigh and sat down too. “You...” The Mane-iac mumbled, her tone distant and thoughtful, as if she was simply talking to herself, “You might have a place the other Ponies don’t... You’d do better as a servant for me than a lowly peon...”

Smiling a little brighter, the heroine couldn’t help but find the speech endearing, with the soft side of the mane-iacal supervillain coming out from simply brushing through her mane. But, a slight dusting of pink came across Radiance’s yellow cheeks as she imagined the situation, where the villain only seemed to want her to help clean her mane, and thus the hero was left in a maid dress within a bathroom alongside the villain, dunking her mane in a tub of shampoo and rigorously washing through its incredible length...

Radiance sighed, slightly mournful that those events would never come to be; she had come to this building with her team, after all, and they were to deal with the villain before her. And they would manage, as they always have, but... the heroine couldn’t help but savour these small moments where she could see beyond the veil of simple madness on the Mane-iac, and she truly wished she could dive deeper into a relationship with her...